This specification relates to speech recognition and voice authentication.
Biometric security measures for electronic devices may include voice authentication measures that match vocal utterances with a biometric profile. Biometric authentication may be used to grant access to electronic devices, such as desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. Prior to voice authentication, electronic devices may be in a locked, or unauthenticated, mode. An electronic device which is in a locked mode may have limited functionality. For example, a locked laptop computer may deny access to communication functions or documents of the laptop computer, and a locked mobile phone may limit the operation of the mobile phone to making emergency phone calls.
Vocal utterances may also be used to command electronic devices by directing them to perform certain actions. A speech recognition service on an electronic device generally receives spoken input from a user, and transcribes the spoken words into text. To accomplish this, the speech recognition service may attempt to match the sounds of the spoken input with phonetic representations of textual words. The textual words may then be interpreted by the electronic device as instructions for performing various actions, such as displaying a map on a screen of the user device, requesting driving directions, making a phone call, or sending an electronic message.